Of course. And no worries. I know it’s a niche joke. Buckle up it’s a long one. Many public libraries, at least in the US, use the Dewey Decimal System (000-999) to organize their nonfiction books. The gist is that Mellville Dewey is problematic for many reasons, but for this example you have to know that when organizing books, Dewey’s best practice is that known hoaxes are categorized and shelved right along with the nonfiction books in the same category. For example the book 1421 claims that America was discovered by the Chinese in year 1421. This book is shelved right along the rest of American history in 945.05. However, the 000’s is the “contested knowledge” which has ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, etc. I feel that moving books like 1421 into 000s it lets librarians contextualize books by essentially saying “we think this book is as true as ghosts.”
My friend is having some trouble too, could someone help me explain it to them?
Of course. And no worries. I know it’s a niche joke. Buckle up it’s a long one. Many public libraries, at least in the US, use the Dewey Decimal System (000-999) to organize their nonfiction books. The gist is that Mellville Dewey is problematic for many reasons, but for this example you have to know that when organizing books, Dewey’s best practice is that known hoaxes are categorized and shelved right along with the nonfiction books in the same category. For example the book 1421 claims that America was discovered by the Chinese in year 1421. This book is shelved right along the rest of American history in 945.05. However, the 000’s is the “contested knowledge” which has ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, etc. I feel that moving books like 1421 into 000s it lets librarians contextualize books by essentially saying “we think this book is as true as ghosts.”
Isn’t 000 Computer Science?
Yes. I don’t remember the exact numbers but the early 000s deal with computers and the later 000 deal with hoaxes and forgeries
So confirmed that computers are fake news
Yes, like they said, contested knowledge
Oh fantastic! I am proud to have observed this exhibit of librarian “humor”, thank you and your children.